Customer Relationship Management (CRM) refers to processes implemented by a company to handle its interactions with its contacts (e.g., customers). Generally, information can be accessed and entered by employees of the company. An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software application that enables the electronic handling of corporate recruitment needs. If hosted and accessed over the Internet, these systems may be known as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). As used herein, the terms “CRM/ATS,” “tracking application,” and “tracking system” refer to any of these types of systems.
The business value of a tracking application is to enable a firm to improve its client interactions. This is done by collecting customer data and analyzing and measuring the data to understand customer needs and improve satisfaction, which leads to increased sales/placement opportunities. As part of the data collection, users (e.g., recruiters or sales representatives) use the tracking system to track all of their interactions with a contact or other company. Example interactions that can be tracked include email messages, telephone calls, appointments, interviews, submissions, and placements. A tracking application provides a method to create activity records such as, for example, notes, email messages, and meetings, which can link to a contact and allow tracking of ongoing interactions with the contact. These activity records typically contain the date and time, title, short description, long description, ability to add an email or copy an email into the description, and the type of interaction typically defined by the user, such as, for example, phone contact, interview, email, or notes. When the activity is logged, a firm can then report on the logged data, measure each user's activity level, and analyze productivity at an individual, team, or firm level.